ive always used sliding bars since i went to waist harnesses about 20 years ago. and i like them, and cant imagine the bar not sliding. ?
today i went to replace my last harness , which was about 5 years old, but was surprised to see almost everything in the shop is fixed bars, in fact they only had a couple of sliding bar harnesses out of the dozens in stock..and those didnt fit.

so, what your preference? sliding or fixed.?
and does it matter?_________________i like longboards.

I'm with you in the sliding camp which I wayyyyyyy prefer. The fixed bar forces your hips more into alignment with the rig since the pull point is directly on center. This means that with a fixed I can't really rotate my hips out of plane with the sail which is a huge detriment to getting upwind and getting on a plane. With a slider I can crank my hips out to the nose which moves the hook slightly off center towards my back foot side of my navel. Once the hook is slid back it makes it natural to sail with your hips rotated towards the nose. For me this helps to create more mast and front leg pressure as needed which really helps get on plane and head upwind.

I bought a fixed once. It took me half a season to realize that the harness was why everything about my sailing was out of whack and slow. The slider is a little harder to hook into after a fall when the hooks stays on one side. But for me the greater sensitivity to my stance makes it worth it. I've used the dakine t5 and hot sails waist. Both are good.

Last edited by xander.arch on Sun Sep 01, 2013 11:39 pm; edited 1 time in total

uh, 3 people in favor of sliding bars to 0 in favor of fixed bars. I hope the industry is reading this.
I use mono line and I can't imaging going back to doubles, but I can definitely admit others preference for doubles as some of the arguments are valid. it is a matter of choice and preference. But sliding bars are really going to seriously impact your sailing in a positive way.

Note to brands: if your harness does not have a way to be retrofitted, it will automatically be dismissed, no matter how superior it is by a lot of sailors._________________www.sqyc.org

Slider for sure, fixed ones suck for all the reasons mentioned above.
I just recently bought a DaKine waist harness with a slider conversion kit, it's just a belt with rings on each end to hook onto the side clips, it works really well, but I have only one complaint with it. It wears out really fast, they need to use a better belt material, I'm already needing to buy another converter._________________I don't drink the 'cool' aid, I drink tequila, it's more honest.

ok, good. its not just me.
the shop was telling that pretty much everyone is going for fixed bars, i cant see it. its gotta feel awkward.
i did end up finding a dakine t6 in another shop today. just a basic bar that just slides on webbing. simple, and the webbing is easy to replace.
but.. it has to be physically 50% larger than my old harness.. whats up with that? why all the excess bulkiness? i dont get it._________________i like longboards.

In the waves, the harness is used mostly to go upwind, therefore when leaning forward and turning hips forward, it sure helps that the hook moves to the side. Now what would be nice is to make the bar go back to the center upon unhooking!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFCqfMQvNUA
This dynabar looks cool, they say it can be made to return to center and can be used for windsurfing. The hook bend looks a little tight but I'm not sure. The shape of the hook looks ok, not so hammerhead shaped like a typical kite hook.
Anyone?

Everyone I know whose harness came with a sliding bar found some way to fix (in both senses of the word) it. It's probably fine in long, straight, stable reaches on flat water, where time spent finding the hook again is not important, but that's not how we sail.

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou can attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum